Trick 'r Treat is an anthology horror movie that was Screwed By The Studio. It was produced by Bryan Singer and directed by Michael Dougherty, and developed from Dougherty's 1996 animated short, Season's Greetings. The conceptual designer was Breehn Burns, co-creator of Dr. Tran. Trick 'r Treat was originally slated for a theatrical release in 2007, but was held up until a DVD release in 2009.

Set over a single Halloween night (although there is a flashback set on a Halloween thirty years prior), Trick 'r Treat is less interested in plot than it is in the holiday itself: the fears, emotions, atmosphere, and the traditions that have coalesced into what people imagine Halloween is about.

Trick 'r Treat has several subplots, loosely connected, that are the focus of this anthology:

A young couple is divided by his love and her (Leslie Bibb) hatred of Halloween.

This movie provides examples of the following:

Anachronic Order: The opening scene is, chronologically, the very last event in the film. After this scene, it tells three stories that are more or less set simultaneously, before backing up to the beginning with another story, set during a time skip. It ends just before the opening scene.

Bait and Switch: Many. Best used for a humorous effect in the opening when a woman sees a masked man dressed like Michael Myers across the street just standing there watching, and it turns out just to be a guy waiting for his ride.

Big Bad Ensemble: Sam, the spirit of Halloween enforcing its rules. Mr. Kreeg, a Halloween-hating cranky old man who is responsible for the deaths of a number of children. And Steven Wilkins, a Serial Killer who was terrorizing trick or treaters throughout the film.

Deadly Prank: Macy and her friends pretend to be the undead schoolbus kids to scare Rhonda, who panics and cracks her head against a rock. The trope is subverted when it turns out that Rhonda is still alive, and subsequently inverted, when the real school bus kids show up and kill the pranksters.

Evil is One Big, Happy Family: The werewolves appear to genuinely care about each other and tend to stick together. Notably, they're all genuinely concerned for Laurie when they find out Wilkins tried to attack her.

Final Girl: Laurie has many aspects of this, being named, as she is, after the Final Girl in Halloween (1978). She's even got the Little Red Riding Hood costume, which is, of course, symbolic of virginity. In the end, however, she and all her friends survive. And they were never really in any danger at all. She and her friends also kill the Serial Killer terrorizing the town.

Hair-Raising Hare: During the flashback of the Halloween School Bus Massacre, one of the children evokes this effect by wearing a creepy bunny mask. And is still wearing it 30 years later, rotted and blackened, when they come out of the lake with the other children to get revenge on the bus driver.

Hell Hound: Invoked by Kreeg, who dresses his rather petite dog in black with glowing eyespots and sics him on trick-or-treaters.

Mr. Kreeg says "You gotta be fuckin' kidding," while Sam's severed hand skitters across the floor, much the same way as Palmer said the exact line in The Thing (1982) while Norris' head ran around the lab on spider legs.

Neurodiversity Is Supernatural: Either Rhonda, the autistic girl, is completely oblivious to the supernatural, or she's so aware of it that she takes it for granted. There does, however, seem to be more evidence for the latter (ie she knows that jack o'lanterns can protect you if they remain lit).

Noodle Incident: On one of the werewolf pack's previous hunts, a chosen victim evidently turned out to be a woman. And got devoured anyway.

Subverted. For a while, it really looks like Steven is going to knife little Billy to death. It turns out he was probably never planning to; he was just really excited about carving that "jack o' lantern"...

Played straight in the story of the Halloween School Bus Massacre, where the parents of eight mentally disabled children hire the bus driver to drown them in the lake.

Pumpkin Person: Sam has a pumpkin-like head under his mask. Notably, the face also shares some features with a skull.

Razor Apples: While there's no literal example, Steven uses poison ("Always check your candy!"), and Sam uses a razor blade inside a chocolate bar as a weapon. If you look closely, you'll notice he was given that same chocolate bar by Steven, so it's quite possible that Steven put the blade there.

Redemption Equals Death: After Mr. Kreeg appeases Sam by giving him a chocolate bar, he is seen giving out candy to other trick 'r treaters and basically doing Halloween right. However, at the end of the night, the schoolbus kids still come for him, since the final scene reveals he was the man who killed them.

Sex as Rite-of-Passage: Laurie is teased by her friends and sister for being a virgin at 22 and wanting her first time to be special. It turns out that they're not referring to sex at all, but the killing and eating of men.

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